A camera may be used to acquire information about a place or an object. The information is visual image data generated by the camera corresponding to the scene falling with the field of view of the camera. A sensor system, such as a radar or depth device, may be used to acquire other information about a place or an object.
Some currently available security systems include means of detecting loitering, often based on tracking the movement of an object within a fixed area for a period of time. However typical video analytics systems fail to detect an immobile person, who simply becomes part of the background image. Security systems available are unable to detect sleeping persons as they do not move sufficiently to register on a camera system; instead they are treated like immobile objects. This poses problems in situations in which the object being monitored is at rest and moving only minimally. An example of such a situation occurs in certain areas, such as ATM vestibules, which are attractive and relatively warm areas for sleeping compared to the outdoors.
Currently banks and other operators of publicly accessible areas, for example ATM vestibules, have difficulty detecting and moving sleeping persons from their property. The presence of persons loitering or sleeping in a vestibule may discourage customers from entering the vestibule.
Another challenge for video cameras is detecting objects or persons in multiple rooms, or in situations where privacy needs to be protected, for example changing rooms or showers.